Miroszów | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Destruction of Jews in Miroszów

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:

Ravine in the field

Memorials:

No

Period of occupation:

1939-1944

Number of victims:

At least 2

Witness interview

Anastazy B., born in 1931: "I was born in 1931, and before the war there was only one Jewish family living in our village—the Lewkowicz family—within an otherwise entirely Catholic population. I remember them clearly because they lived three houses away from us. Like most villagers, they earned their living primarily from agriculture. I also recall that the father held an important religious role: Jews from neighboring villages would come to his house on Saturdays to pray together. He was, in a way, like a rabbi. As children, we were curious and tried to watch them pray. We would climb the fence to look, and sometimes this disturbed them. The Lewkowicz family was big: there was the wife and several children—both daughters and sons—who were all much older than I was at the time." (Witness N°YIU1270P, interviewed in Racławice, on September 27 2021)

Polish Archives

Historical note

Miroszów is a village located in the administrative district of Gmina Racławice, within Miechów County, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland.

Little is known about the prewar Jewish community of Miroszów. However, according to the testimony of Anastazy B., born in 1931 and recorded by Yahad - In Unum during field research in the area, the only Jewish residents living in the village before the war—amid an otherwise entirely Catholic population—were members of the Lewkowicz family. Anastazy clearly remembers the family, who, like most villagers, earned their livelihood primarily from agriculture. He also recalls that the father of the family played an important religious role, as Jews from Racławice and other neighboring villages would gather at his home on Saturdays to pray together.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Following the defeat of the Polish Army during the September Campaign of 1939, the authorities of the Third Reich established the General Government in the occupied territories of central Poland. By the end of 1939, the town of Miechów had become the seat of the German administration of Kreis Miechów, and the entire county, including the village of Miroszów, came under German occupation.

According to the testimony of Anastazy B., born in 1931 and interviewed by Yahad in 2021, the Lewkowicz family was assembled on the orders of the German authorities. Local peasants, requisitioned by the village head, were forced to transport them to ghettos established in the surrounding area. The older members of the family were taken to the ghetto in Działoszyce, while the younger members, including children and grandchildren, were deported to the ghetto in Miechów.

Anastazy B. further recalls that the younger members of the Lewkowicz family repeatedly escaped from the ghetto and returned to Miroszów in search of food, which local residents provided whenever possible. The Germans actively pursued escapees, however, and eventually Lewkowicz’s son-in-law was captured by German forces in Bukowska Wola, near Miechów, and killed.

According to an investigation file concerning Polish policemen tried for the murder of four Jews in Miroszów in June 1943, the victims had been hidden by the Bielawski family since May 1943. In June, they were denounced and subsequently shot by Polish policemen.

The testimony of Anastazy B. also made it possible to identify the burial site of two Lewkowicz sons killed in the vicinity of Miroszów in June 1943. According to his account, the brothers had previously been confined in a labor camp established in a school building in Racławice, where they were forced, along with other young and able-bodied Jews, to work on the construction of the road to Skalbmierz. Local children, including Anastazy, smuggled food to the prisoners on their way to school.

The two young men eventually escaped from the camp and hid for a time in the attic of a chlew (livestock building) belonging to Anastazy B.’s family. They later moved hiding place but were betrayed by a former acquaintance, killed, and buried in a ravine in a field between Miroszów and Kropidło. Anastazy B. stated that the victims were killed by German forces.

The burial site of the two Lewkowicz brothers identified by Yahad is today overgrown with trees and remains un-commemorated.

In 1994, the Bielawski family was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for having sheltered five Jewish people in their home and for providing temporary refuge to many others from 1942 until January 1945.

Nearby villages

• Racławice
• Skalbmierz

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